Today's tea: "Wind" sencha, Kyoto Obobu Tea Farms

 

This is another one of the sample sencha packets from Kyoto Obobu that Jade gave me - I think I have two more left at this point. 

Lovely aroma on opening the packet. 100ml/5g. First steep approx. 45 seconds @ 175F. Plenty astringent, though not quite as sharp as the Ippodo Matsu no Midori. Lots of umami and that classic "freshly steamed spinach" thing that I associate sencha with. It seemed a little mellower on the second steep - or I was getting used to it. I think I preferred their "Earth" variety, but still, not a bad little cup of tea. 

I'm quite liking the little hohin for a one-cup brew: it's comfortable in the hand, you don't have to fuss about how much water goes in, just top it up. 

And yes, I finally scared up a white porcelain teacup off Etsy, the better to appreciate/record the color of tea samples. 

In other news, realizing that my loose leaf Darjeeling and Assam are pretty stale, I found a vendor on Amazon for Indian teas that looked worth checking out, so I ordered a 3.5 oz package of each variety. They also do tea bags, if that is your preference. I'll report on those when they arrive. 

Yes, I know, Jeff Bezos is already plenty rich, but I already *have* Prime covering my shipping. 

One of my regular Dreamwidth readers commented that she found the tea posts a bit overwhelming, but my purpose is twofold: I am still under Covid imposed house arrest and it gives me something to do, plus it will be there to remind me what I did or didn't like when I get to the point I need to buy more tea.